1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interface circuit disposed between a generator of control signals and a plurality of electronic switches in order to produce boosted voltage signals corresponding to the control signals for activation of the electronic switches.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In digital integrated circuits, a need to have boosted voltage signals arises from the fact that the so-called "body" effect of MOS transistors requires gate voltages greater than a supply voltage of the circuit. Internal supplies which use voltage multipliers with capacitors are generally provided to produce these gate voltages. To achieve relatively high currents from the multipliers, however, the capacitors have to have correspondingly high capacitances. This constitutes a limitation on producing internal supplies with fully-integrated voltage multipliers since, as is known, the capacitance of an integrated capacitor is directly proportional to the area of semiconductor occupied thereby, as well as to a thickness of the dielectric which is, however, generally fixed by the manufacturing process. Clearly, the need to produce voltage multipliers which can supply large currents conflicts with the need to reduce the dimensions of integrated circuits and hence their cost.